Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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Numbers 12:1-15

Psalm 53

Acts 12:6-19

Luke 14:2-6

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The standard English-language translation of the opening line of Psalms 14 and 53 is that a fool thinks that there is no God. However, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985) has the benighted man thinking that God does not care. This gets to the point of practical atheism, not the modern, widespread reality of theoretical atheism, rare in the ancient Middle East. Indeed, God cares jealously in the Bible. God objects strenuously whenever someone challenges Moses. God also sends an angel to break St. Simon Peter out of prison.

The portion from Luke 14 exists within a larger narrative context–the eschatological banquet, symbolic of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is at a banquet at the home of a leading Pharisee on the Sabbath. In the reading assigned for today our Lord and Savior heals a man afflicted with dropsy, or severe retention of fluid. The fact that he does this on the Sabbath becomes controversial immediately. Jesus rebuts that even they rescue a child or an ox from a well on the Sabbath. They cannot argue against him.

Father Raymond E. Brown, in his magisterial Introduction to the New Testament (1997), wrote the following:

Actually at Qumran there was a prohibition of pulling a newborn animal our of a pit on the Sabbath (CD 11:13-14).

–Page 248

Every day is a proper day to act out of compassion, according to Jesus, although not the community at Qumran.

In the great eschatological banquet the blind, the lame, the poor, and the crippled are welcome–even preferred guests. One ought to invite them because it is the right thing to do. One should commit good deeds out of compassion and piety, not the desire for reciprocal treatment. Grace is not transactional.

The temptation to relate to God in transactional terms is a powerful one. It is, among other things, a form of works-based righteousness, a major theological error. Keeping the Covenant, at its best, is a matter of faithful response to God. (“If you love me, keep my commandments.”–John 14:15) However useful having a list of instructions can be, that list can easily become for one a checklist to manipulate, until one violates major tenets while honoring minor facets. In the Jewish tradition one finds longstanding recognition of a summary of the Law of Moses: Love God fully and one’s neighbor as oneself.

So healing a man on the Sabbath should not be controversial, should it? (John 7:22-24)

But what about Sabbath laws? There is a death penalty for working on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36), except when there is not (Leviticus 12:3). If the eighth day of a boy’s life falls on the Sabbath, the circumcision of the child must, according to the Law of Moses, occur on the Sabbath. But do not dare to collect sticks on the Sabbath! Removing part of a male on the Sabbath is permissible, so why not making someone whole?

Every day is a good day to act compassionately, according to Jesus. God cares about the needs of people each day. So should we.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 17, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF EDITH BOYLE MACALISTER, ENGLISH NOVELIST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT EMILY DE VIALAR, FOUNDER OF THE SISTERS OF SAINT JOSEPH OF THE APPARITION